Adverse Weather Events Funding

Householders, businesses, farmers and the council itself may have incurred costs as a result of the recent adverse weather events. The various schemes announced by the Government to provide financial support are summarised below along with contact details and links to further documentation.

Repair and Renewal Grants of up to £5000 per household or business are being provided to fund additional flood resilience or resistance measures for homes and businesses that have flooded since 1st December 2013. Grants are intended only to fund measures which improve the properties resilience or resistance to flooding over and above repairs that would normally be covered by insurance. Examples of the kind of measures which could be considered might be airbrick covers or self closing airbricks, sump pumps, demountable door or window guards, moving electrics and garage or driveway barriers. This is not a comprehensive list and homeowners and businesses can obtain a tailored report on the type of flood resilience measures that might be appropriate for their property from the Property-Protection-Advisor website. Grants are not intended to cover standard repairs or to provide compensation. They must be used only for improvements to the fabric of the premises that would have the impact of reducing the impact and cost of subsequent flooding on the property. This scheme will be launched on 1st April 2014 and the council will make application information available once full details of the scheme are received from central government. In the meantime, if you wish to log a request for an application pack you can do so by contacting Alan.Barnes@iow.gov.uk for homeowners and Matthew.Hill@iow,gov.uk for businesses.

Business Rates Flooding Relief of 100% for three months could be granted to those businesses who meet the eligibility criteria. This will be funded by Government and administered by local authorities. Eligibility criteria can be found here or you can contact Business.rates@iow.gov.uk or 01983 823920at the council for further information.

Council Tax discounts of up to 3 months for homes which have been flooded may be provided by local authorities within their discretionary powers. The Government has agreed to fund up to £4m across the country to support this. Further information can be found here or you can contact the council atCouncil.tax@iow.gov.uk or 01983 823901 .

Business support scheme funding may be available for small and medium sized businesses who were impacted by the floods and suffered a significant loss of trade and who meet the eligibility criteria. The fund could cover the costs of immediate clean up, materials, exceptional business costs (such as hire of drying equipment) and temporary accommodation to enable those business to continue trading. Business continuity planning and marketing costs may also be covered. The Government has allocated £25,000 to the Isle of Wight for this scheme and has stated that it would expect individual claims to be no more than £2500. Businesses can request further information on eligibility and applications from Matthew.Hill@iow,gov.uk

Farming Recovery Funding has been established to support farm businesses to restore flooded agricultural land and bring it back into production as quickly as possible. The fund is aimed at helping farmers introduce lasting and sustainable flood prevention measures to help secure future production once land is restored, and will be administered by DEFRA. Further information is available here.

Bellwin Scheme funding is available to local authorities who have incurred 0.2 per cent of their calculated annual budget (threshold) on works reported to the Department for Communities and Local Government as eligible. For this scheme the secretary of state will pay grant at the rate of 100% on qualifying expenditure before 30th May 2014 above the threshold. Expenditure must have been incurred to take immediate action to safeguard life or property or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience in their area or among its inhabitants, or as a result of the incident specified in the scheme which involved the destruction of or damage to life or property.

The Isle of Wight Council has notified the DCLG of its intention to submit a claim under this scheme and is currently assessing the costs already incurred and those likely to be incurred within the deadline.